Two tanks, One room

[YHSublime]

Ah, okay.

 

Are you able to shoot the 60 w/o a tripod? I would imagine it would be very difficult w/ the 105.

 

I shoot all my photos on the 60 sans tripod. The 105, most of my shots came out blurry, except those I used the tripod for. The info below is well said:

 

I can't comment on what the 60 is like to use, but the 105mm has been one of my most used lenses for the last 7 years or so (since I bought one) so I can give a bit of feedback on tripodless shots...

 

In brief, it is absolutely  possible to handhold macro shots with the 105. The VR helps but most of it is technique and practice. The most consistent way I have found is:

1. Put the lens in manual focus, and dial the lens to about 1:1 (the minimum focusing distance - assuming you want a 1:1 macro, otherwise adjust as needed
2. Smash the camera nice and flat to your face, and tuck your elbows into your sides (the standard posture for minimizing camera shake)
3. Try to ensure your shutter speed is 1/160 or faster (1/125 can work, but it is even harder)
4. Set your aperture to between f/8 to f/16
5. Now slowly lean forwards and backwards waiting for the moment your subject comes into sharp focus; when it does fire away!

This method works for me as I find it much easier to tilt myself forwards/backwards than to fiddle with the focus. However, having a tripod of course makes things much, much easier. Also, the AF works nicely in this lens, and you can even AF down to a 1:1 macro shot .... however, it is also quite dependent on having good lighting and a detailed subject, so for dedicated macro work MF is the most consistent.

 

FWIW, the photos in my thread are almost all with the 105mm, and the only thing I used the tripod for was the short movie of the hairworm.

 

Thanks for taking the time to walk through that. I tried with not a lot of sucess, but I did not practice for long, I plan on getting there.

 

Great shots! Some of my favs so far:

• both of the clownfish photos are lovely (the 'nem makes for a great background)
• I also particularly like the red and white acan (or I think that is what it is - forgive my poor coral identification skills)
• the wavy GSP shot, with the high contrast and dark shadowed valleys looks really beautiful and mysterious ... very nice!

Thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks! Your assistance and help has been much appreciated!

 

I love the nems with the clowns. No matter what, I always end up with a million photos of the clowns in the nems, and they are usually all perfect.

You nailed it, that is an Acan, it's amazing that the camera captures more than the eye usually picks up, my fiance didn't believe that was in my tank

I like the GSP as well, although it's a fast grower and "weed like" it still provides a lot of nice movement and color into the tank.

 

Thanks for your feedback!

[howaboutme]

I can't comment on what the 60 is like to use, but the 105mm has been one of my most used lenses for the last 7 years or so (since I bought one) so I can give a bit of feedback on tripodless shots...

 

In brief, it is absolutely  possible to handhold macro shots with the 105. The VR helps but most of it is technique and practice. The most consistent way I have found is:

1. Put the lens in manual focus, and dial the lens to about 1:1 (the minimum focusing distance - assuming you want a 1:1 macro, otherwise adjust as needed
2. Smash the camera nice and flat to your face, and tuck your elbows into your sides (the standard posture for minimizing camera shake)
3. Try to ensure your shutter speed is 1/160 or faster (1/125 can work, but it is even harder)
4. Set your aperture to between f/8 to f/16
5. Now slowly lean forwards and backwards waiting for the moment your subject comes into sharp focus; when it does fire away!

This method works for me as I find it much easier to tilt myself forwards/backwards than to fiddle with the focus. However, having a tripod of course makes things much, much easier. Also, the AF works nicely in this lens, and you can even AF down to a 1:1 macro shot .... however, it is also quite dependent on having good lighting and a detailed subject, so for dedicated macro work MF is the most consistent.

 

FWIW, the photos in my thread are almost all with the 105mm, and the only thing I used the tripod for was the short movie of the hairworm.

 

Thanks! This is great information. Do you have the Nikon or the Sigma 105mm? It's the 2.8? I'm not a big fan of needing tripods (just another thing to lug around and this lense wouldn't be strictly for the tank anyways) so this was good to hear that it's possible. I'm sure it will take practice. It's hard to try out lenses these days since there are really no good camera shops in our area (I think). I miss those days where I used to live just a few blocks from B&H..sigh... I will check our your thread more closely now.

 

Isaac, greats shots even if if takes a few tries...Practice makes perfect. Thanks for sharing.

[Kallor]

Thanks! This is great information. Do you have the Nikon or the Sigma 105mm? It's the 2.8? I'm not a big fan of needing tripods (just another thing to lug around and this lense wouldn't be strictly for the tank anyways) so this was good to hear that it's possible. I'm sure it will take practice. It's hard to try out lenses these days since there are really no good camera shops in our area (I think). I miss those days where I used to live just a few blocks from B&H..sigh... I will check our your thread more closely now.

 

Isaac, greats shots even if if takes a few tries...Practice makes perfect. Thanks for sharing.

 

I have the Nikon version. My sister-in-law has the Sigma version, and optically it is also quite nice - there really isn't a 'bad' micro lens out there, so you can't go wrong.

 

Living by B&H would certainly be a lot of fun - but would come with loads of temptation as well! I've only been by twice, and visiting is quite an experience.

 

One or two more more micro tip (Nikon calls their close-up lenses "macro" rather than "micro", so I've built up a bad habit of using those two terms interchangeably)

• water movement really makes things tricky for the softer corals that wave around. So turning off your water flow would make shots a lot easier - otherwise I've found I need to dial up the shutter speed sometimes as high as 1/400 to take shots of my GSP that are crisp at 100%.
• if you have access to an external flash, give it a go - it helps things quite a bit, and I've gotten pretty consistent results by bouncing it off the ceiling. If you don't bounce you can get some gross harsh shadows.
• if you are using AF, and your camera has an AF compensation/adjustment setting, experiment with it and see if you need it. Even if you don't figure out if your lens + camera combo has a tendency to focus in front of your target, or behind it. Once you know this you can either dial in a AF adjustment in your camera settings, or pick your focus points slightly behind or in front of what you want in focus.

[YHSublime]

Isaac, greats shots even if if takes a few tries...Practice makes perfect. Thanks for sharing.

 

More than a few...

 

Hey, btw, check out my coral banded being a gangster and tearing into a stomatella.

 

[monkiboy]

isaac, you've been killing me lately with these videos. you got a bad case of VVS. i hope this PSA helps you.

 

[Kallor]

More than a few...

 

Hey, btw, check out my coral banded being a gangster and tearing into a stomatella.

 

 

Wow I love it! It is really cool to see him making use of all those limbs! Videos like these are part of what brought me back into the hobby ... It really drives home the whole 'piece of he ocean in your home'.

[Kallor]

isaac, you've been killing me lately with these videos. you got a bad case of VVS. i hope this PSA helps you.

 

 

I about lost it at George Lucas - I'm going to bookmark this cause I've got so e family members to share it with....

[Kallor]

I shoot all my photos on the 60 sans tripod. The 105, most of my shots came out blurry, except those I used the tripod for. The info below is well said:

 

 

Thanks for taking the time to walk through that. I tried with not a lot of sucess, but I did not practice for long, I plan on getting there.

 

 

Thanks! Your assistance and help has been much appreciated!

 

I love the nems with the clowns. No matter what, I always end up with a million photos of the clowns in the nems, and they are usually all perfect.

You nailed it, that is an Acan, it's amazing that the camera captures more than the eye usually picks up, my fiance didn't believe that was in my tank

I like the GSP as well, although it's a fast grower and "weed like" it still provides a lot of nice movement and color into the tank.

 

Thanks for your feedback!

 

Not a problem - thanks for sharing the photos! I remember my first few forays into the wilds with my 105. I had all these tips I was trying to keep in my head, and when I saw something to photograph my mind kinda went blank. Then I'd get home, look over my shots, and remember all the things I was "supposed" to be doing/monitoring as I was taking the photos. It took me quite some time to get into a comfortable rhythm with macro shots. They are so unforgiving of even the smallest mistake, and really push the photographer (and his gear) to its limits. One thing that did help me was switching over to manual focus and manual exposure for macro - I set my ISO about as high as I could tolerate, given my camera at the time (ISO 640 - 800ish), set my shutter speed to as slow as I could get away with (1/160 for still bugs and flowers, faster if there was wind --- or in this case, water current) and then set my aperture to whatever the exposure demanded - hopefully f/8 - f/16, f/16 being my preference. 

 

Letting the 'camera decide' made everything way to unpredictable for me, and it made it hard to figure out when I made a mistake or when the camera made a mistake. Of course, I'm still adapting to aquarium photography, and it likely has its own tricks, and you also might find different things that work for you - and the keepers/fail ration of macro photos can be discouraging, but hang in there! You've already gotten loads of great results!

[YHSublime]

isaac, you've been killing me lately with these videos. you got a bad case of VVS. i hope this PSA helps you.

 

Thank you for sharing that with me. I don't mean any harm....

 

and I say NO to old Mila Kunis

Thanks a Mila for the share.

[Origami]

"... People's eyes are horizontal." I about lost it there. R

LMAO over that one.

 

Sent from my LG G-Pad 8.3 Google Play Edition

 

 

[YHSublime]

Almost a year ago this is how I was looking.

[DuffyGeos]

VVS... too funny!  and anytime you can manage to post a picture of Mila on a reef tank site, and there is some context, by all means have at it!

[YHSublime]

A last hurrah!

 

The tank just before the it2080's sold:

 

What's going on...?

 

 

And lastly: Rupert passed away about a week ago. I think I moved him quickly after he molted, and his silly behavior was actually signs he was on his way out. Now I've got this 20 gallon that looks like it will be a frag tank, although zoas look reaaaal nice in the kessil light.

 

[YHSublime]

anytime you can manage to post a picture of Mila on a reef tank site, and there is some context, by all means have at it!

 

Amen to that.

 

 

changes on the way, slowly but surely.

[monkiboy]

dude what do you got going on? always messing with a good thing, sheesh...

[YHSublime]

dude what do you got going on? always messing with a good thing, sheesh...

 

Haha, I'll do a big update soon, but just you wait! You know I need something to tinker with.

[Kallor]

A last hurrah!

 

 

And lastly: Rupert passed away about a week ago. I think I moved him quickly after he molted, and his silly behavior was actually signs he was on his way out. Now I've got this 20 gallon that looks like it will be a frag tank, although zoas look reaaaal nice in the kessil light.

 

Sorry about your loss :-(

 

The frag tank and that Kessil look mighty nice though! Have you gotten that fancy skimmer you've got on it dialed in? Guess you can retire that clunker you have from Avast once you do :-p

Edited March 17, 2014 by Kallor

[YHSublime]

Sorry about your loss :-(

 

The frag tank and that Kessil look mighty nice though! Have you gotten that fancy skimmer you've got on it dialed in? Guess you can retire that clunker you have from Avast once you do :-p

Thanks bud, it happens.

 

I do like the kes, a lot. Huge lol at your skimmer joke. I thought it would be a nice extra, ya know, just in case. It's pretty junky though.

[pizzaguy]

Looks sweet

[Sharkey18]

I am so sorry about Rupert. 

 

However, you DO need a frag tank. 

[YHSublime]

Looks sweet

 

I am so sorry about Rupert. 

 

However, you DO need a frag tank. 

 

Thank you both.

 

You're right, a frag tank is important. I wish I didn't have all this sand in there now. Perhaps there is another mantis in my future, we will see. I threw that RBTA in, and it takes up most of the tank, would have been cool with Rupert, but now it's a lot of real estate. I'm wondering if it will settle in the DT with my other one, or if I'll have wandering.

[DCReefer1964]

manup move on. I would have loved some Rupert GUMBO. Just kidding, I feel your pain Bro. I am now on the lookout for a new Mantis for you free. You know me I will find it.

[smallreef]

Yeah that nem is huge,lol...wasn't that big in my tank!

frag tank is a good idea...and your evil coral banded should be fine with frags...

[YHSublime]

manup move on. I would have loved some Rupert GUMBO. Just kidding, I feel your pain Bro. I am now on the lookout for a new Mantis for you free. You know me I will find it.

 

How about Rupert Tempura? He's in my freezer if you're interested...

If you find one, let me know, I will gladly turn it back into a mantis think tank.

 

Yeah that nem is huge,lol...wasn't that big in my tank!

frag tank is a good idea...and your evil coral banded should be fine with frags...

 

Yeah, it's gigantic. It gets bigger everyday. The evil coral banded is gone! It's turning into a nem tank without my permission!

[YHSublime]

So I added two clowns into the old mantis tank. There is a gigantic nem in there... and they don't seem to want to host it. It's only been less than 24 hours, so I will give it time. My other clowns hosted a nem within 30 seconds, so this is strange for me, although understandable, as I have heard many others gripe in similar situations! They seem very interested, and will swim up to it, and then back into a corner, so I hope it wont be long.

 

On another note, I have been using a temporary light over my tank, and swapping it back and forth every 24 hours. I know it is a band-aid fix, but all my nuisance algae has vanished. The tank looks pristine. I think on top of cutting down food, I will also cut back on my photo period. Some of the fish and corals seem confused, but everything is still eating, and still responding well to light.

 

Stay tuned!